Airline operations crimped by outage

August Cole

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The Federal Aviation Administration said that two of the three New York area airports and Cleveland's facilities were up and running on Thursday evening after effectively shutting down following a blackout that struck much of the Northeast and parts of Canada.

The outage, which occurred around 4 p.m., affected the three major New York-area airports -- Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airport -- along with facilities in Cleveland, Ottawa and Toronto.

JFK was expected to be up and running around 9 p.m. Eastern, said FAA spokesman Greg Martin.

"The effect is not unlike a severe snowstorm," he said. Getting operations back to normal should occur in less than 12 hours, he said, and should be wrapped up before the weekend travel rush begins on Friday.

Shutting down

At about 5 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration invoked "ground stop" orders, barring plane traffic from taking off for the affected airports.

Experts said that the airlines had a narrow window of time to get operations going again before the impact of the halt becomes much harder to untangle during a seasonally busy time.

Any flights scheduled to fly to the region were unable to take off unless the carrier had an alternative destination to use, said Arlene Salac, spokeswoman for the New York-area FAA office.

It was unclear when power might be restored to the New York City or to the airports. However, there were sporadic reports some affected areas were returning to normal more than two hours after the outages began.

Backup generators supplied power for traffic control facilities. The FAA said the ground-stop orders were necessary because the outages also affected the ability to process passengers as well as hindering security screening. For flights that were already airborne when the orders come, the airlines were given permission to set their own course.

American Airlines
AMR,
+33.33%,
the world's largest carrier, said in a recorded message that the outage meant that operations at JFK, LaGuardia, Islip, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, Toronto, Ottawa, Syracuse, Buffalo and Montreal were affected. Flights on the ground will remain there and those aircraft inbound will be directed by air-traffic control to the best destination.

No. 2 carrier United Airlines
UALAQ
said that its operations have been affected system-wide. United operations at the three major New York City area airports, Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo and Toronto are at a standstill, said spokesman Jeff Green.

Air Canada went so far as to cancel its domestic and U.S. flights to and from Toronto and Ottawa for the day.

Feeling the effect

Quantifying the impact of the outage during the industry's busiest season is difficult but Bruce McIndoe, CEO of IJet Travel Risk Management, an advisory and services firm said it will have a huge impact because roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of their flight demand is in the Northeast region.

"This is a tough kick. No question," he said. Not only are the flights in and out of the area delayed, he said, but planes set to fly routes in unaffected areas of the country will not be able to make their schedules or even arrive at all.

Already this summer, most airlines' planes are as full as they've been in a long time. "Anybody that is running hub operations out of an affected airport is facing more issues than those if it is the end of a spoke," McIndoe said.

JetBlue Airways
JBLU,
+5.14%,
which has operations based out of JFK, is one such carrier. The carrier said in a statement that customers with booked tickets would have fare increases and change fees waived through Saturday for rebooking through Sept. 30. Cancelled tickets will be refunded at full credit.

For travelers concerned about their flights, United's Green suggested checking the airline's Web site or calling reservation operations.

For those traveling or waiting for flights, McIndoe suggested finding the nearest available hotel room and settling down for a good wait.

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